If you follow the world of shiny digital gadgets, you know how this story goes.  First some rumors about a new mobile phone get leaked.  Then the FCC outs said phone to the world by way of official documents that go public on fcc.gov.  Then, depending on the timing, either the handset is unleashed upon the world, ending all of the rumor mongering and speculation as to the details of its more juicy bits, or the handset maker does some backroom shuffling in an attempt to keep further device details under wraps until launch day.

While the FCC unveiled the HTC Dream (aka The first Android phone) back on August 18th, the device is still at least a few weeks removed from hitting the market.  Looks like HTC hit the FCC up with "a request to use a less detailed diagram for the label placement," according to Engadget Mobile.  Somehow in the process further details regarding Dream's size and shape were let loose.  The upshot?  Dream is ever so slightly shorter and noitceably narrower than Apple's iPhone 3G, though Engadget's guessing (and I concur) that the new HTC phone will likely be a fair amount thicker than iPhone, owing to its slide-out QWERTY board.

The actual stats?  Dream measures up at 115 x 55mm, while iPhone 3G is 115.2 x 62.1mm.  So Dream is just a hair shorter but over 10% narrower than iPhone 3G. This may just fly in the face of what you were expecting if you watched that blurry video everyone says depicts Dream's basic design.  Didn't see the video?  Here you go:

Need more stats?  Want more comparisons?  Head over to Engadget Mobile for comparisons between Dream and a few more of your favorite not-yet-released smartphones.